Implementing thermal remediations in reaction to execution of software

Abstract

Embodiments are directed to capturing and storing historical data regarding thermal remediations, to predicting and acting on remediation futures and to communicating with applications regarding thermal remediations implemented on the computer system. In one scenario, a computer system determines which thermal remediations are currently being implemented on a monitored computing device. The thermal remediations are based on the monitored computing device's current operating environment including the physical thermal environment and / or the current software execution environment. The computer system further tracks thermal remediation levels for those thermal remediations that are currently being implemented on the monitored computing device, the thermal remediation levels indicating the degree to which each thermal remediation is implemented. The computer system also filters the tracked thermal remediation levels for tracked thermal remediation information that includes information regarding the computing device's current operating environment, and stores the filtered thermal remediation levels in a data store.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62 / 110,238, entitled “Managing Thermal Remediations on a Computing Device, filed on Jan. 30, 2015, which application is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.BACKGROUND[0002]As mobile computing devices become increasingly capable of high-level processing, their level of processing is limited by the device's ability to dissipate heat. In order to reduce the amount of heat generated by the device, a variety of different thermal remediations may be applied. These remediations may include capping CPU core frequencies, reducing screen brightness, or others. The thermal remediations are typically applied after an application has been running for period of time long enough to cause the device to reach a thermal threshold. The heating and subsequent thermal remediations negatively impact the user experience by making it less responsive, ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0003]Embodiments described herein are directed to capturing and storing historical data regarding thermal remediations, predicting and acting on remediation futures and to communicating with applications regarding thermal remediations implemented on the computer system. In one embodiment, a computer system determines which thermal remediations are currently being implemented on a monitored computing device. The thermal remediations may include reducing CPU or other hardware component clock frequencies, moving work items between CPU cores, dimming a display, preventing a battery from charging, reducing transmission rates on a network card, disabling antennas, disabling ports, reducing camera frame rates, reducing camera resolution, changing hardware component or platform idle states or other remediations. The thermal remediations are based on the monitored computing device's current operating environment, which may include both the physical thermal environment and the current software execution environment.

[0004]The computer system further tracks thermal remediation levels for those thermal remediations that are currently being implemented on the monitored computing device. The thermal remediation levels indicate the degree to which each thermal remediation is implemented. The computer system also filters the tracked thermal remediation levels for those portions of tracked thermal remediation information that include information regarding the monitored computing device's current operating environment, and stores the filtered thermal remediation levels in a data store. Tracking and identifying which thermal remediations are being implemented and the degree to which they are being implemented, and then filtering the remediations to determine which are most relevant to the computing device's current operating environment may allow for changes to be implemented which conserve the life of the device and improve processing performance. Indeed, by identifying the remediations that are most relevant to the computing device's current operating environment, the level of those remediations may be increased or decreased to reduce the temperature of the device, and thereby increase processing speed and hardware component performance.

Problems solved by technology

As mobile computing devices become increasingly capable of high-level processing, their level of processing is limited by the device's ability to dissipate heat.

The heating and subsequent thermal remediations negatively impact the user experience by making it less responsive, lowering frame rates, glitching, etc.

Furthermore, once the device subsequently reaches a steady state (thermal equilibrium), the resultant performance may actually be worse than if the remediations had been enabled (at some lesser intensity) when the application was started.

Images